Mat talks comics on the BBC

As you may be aware, Marvel recently announced that the Ms. Marvel mantle is to be inherited by a character named Kamala Khan, a Muslim-American teenage girl.

You would have thought that this would be an unlikely mainstream news story – especially considering the admirable diversity in gender, ethnicity and sexuality currently headlining titles from the big two comic publishers. Nevertheless, the BBC World Service dedicated a discussion piece to this development on their World Have Your Say programme last Thursday.

Inexplicably joining multi-Eisner nominee and upcoming Ms. Marvel scribe G. Willow Wilson was none other than Alien in the Outfield artist Mat Barnett. Mat singularly failed to plug Alien in the Outfield but – despite his self promotional fail – the resultant conversation around comics, diversity and representation is certainly worth a listen.